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The Motul Petit Le Mans is set to be a 10-hour thriller

04.10.2018

In just a little under two weeks, the competitors in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship will face their ultimate challenge. The 10 hours of Road Atlanta better known as the ‘Motul Petit Le Mans’ is the last race of the season and everything is still to play for.

Going into the Petit Le Mans, after nine gruelling races, including the Rolex 24 hours of Daytona and the 12 hours of Sebring, the IMSA WTSC has seen no fewer than seven different winners in the Prototype category. The two main title contenders are the current leader #54 Whelen Engineering Racing Cadillac Dpi, closely followed by the #31 Oreca of Core Autosports. More interesting, there are four (!) other teams that could mathematically still grab the title if anything happened to the #54 or #31 cars.

In GTLM it’s an all American showdown with the Germans lurking in the shadows. Leading the standings is the #3 Corvette Racing C7R with Antony Garcia and Jan Magnussen. Their lead is only nine points over the #67 Chip Ganassi racing Ford GT of Ryan Briscoe and Richard Westbrook. The Corvette boys show that in endurance racing consistency is key: they haven’t won a single event this year but have consistently scored top five positions. The Ford crew may have won three events but they’ve also racked up a few DNFs. Mathematically, the win could also go to five other cars including both Porsche 911s.

In GTD, the title will be fought out between the #48 Paul Miller racing a Lamborghini and the Meyer Shank Racing w/curb Aganian #86 Acura NSX.

Given the high stakes, this year’s Motul Petit Le Mans will be a ten-hour thriller that we won’t forget in a hurry. To get a taste of what’s in store, here’s the live stream of last year’s event.